Do you ever feel like you’ve got multiple personalities? I have a good friend who is a preacher, and he recently wrote an article titled “I have multiple personalities!” After reading it I told him that I wanted to borrow his idea, but tweak it a little for my own article…
What my friend meant, and what I mean, by that statement is not that we have the mental disorder where we actually switch between different people in our minds, but rather that sometimes we feel and act like two different people. I find myself at times doing things that I know I shouldn’t do. I find myself saying things I know I shouldn’t say. And its not that I want to do those things, I actually hate doing those things, but I still find myself doing them. Maybe you can relate. Have you ever found yourself saying, acting, doing things that Christians should be opposed to? Sometimes it feels like we have 2 different people within us, one trying to do the right thing, and another trying to do the wrong thing! Sometimes it feels like we’ve got multiple personalities…
We are not alone in that feeling. Paul wrote about this very thing in Romans 7. Notice what Paul said: “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:22-23)
I don’t know about you, but I often feel exactly what that verse says. I often feel like my inner-man wants to do the right things, but then I see another man working in my body doing the very things I hate! This feeling can cripple us… But I love the way Paul ends this passage. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Paul felt like a wretched man when he saw his “multiple personalities.” We too may feel like a wretched person when we see them. But Paul found his hope and joy and his salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the reason we have redemption, not our perfect behavior. When we feel like we’re not stacking up, remember Jesus died to save us from that crippling feeling. Look for the joy found in Jesus, instead of focusing on how many times you slip up. That will cripple you in the end. There is joy in what Jesus has done for us!
— Kolton Ballance